Mark Lilla: The Defense of a Jewish Collaborator - The Last of the Unjust a film directed by Claude Lanzmann Shown at the New York Film Festival in September; general release in February 2014 - Terezin: Il ghetto-modello di Eichmann [Theresienstadt: Eichmann’s Model Ghetto] by Benjamin Murmelstein Brescia: La Scuola, 246 pp., €15.50 - “Der Letzte der Ungerechten”: Der “Judenälteste” Benjamin Murmelstein in Filmen 1942–1975 [“The Last of the Unjust”: The “Jewish Head Elder” Benjamin Murmelstein in Films 1942–1975] edited by Ronny Loewy and Katharina Rauschenberger Frankfurt: Campus, 201 pp., €24.90

What few viewers will know is that many of Murmelstein’s detail-filled monologues are drawn, sometimes verbatim, from a book he published in 1961 about his camp experiences, Terezin: Il ghetto-modello di Eichmann (Theresienstadt: Eichmann’s Model Ghetto), which has just been reissued to coincide with the film’s premiere. Murmelstein must have had high hopes for the book but it received little attention at the time and did nothing to rescue his reputation. When he learned of Eichmann’s kidnapping and planned trial he even sent a copy to prosecutors in Jerusalem, along with a letter giving his contact information and stating his willingness to testify. He never received a response.

Mein Blog befasst sich in einem umfassenden Sinn mit dem Verhältnis von Wissen, Wissenschaft und Gesellschaft. Ein besonderes Augenmerk richte ich dabei auf die Aktivitäten des Medien- und Dienstleistungskonzern Bertelsmann und der Bertelsmann Stiftung.